Cardcaptors
by wtchcool
Summary: This is the attempt that I made to novelize the cartoon series- Card Captors. I was in my early teens when I wrote this and had not heard of the term "fan fiction." It was so long ago that the file was on a floppy disk. Full author's note inside.
1. Chapter 1: One Fateful Day

**Author's Note**

Honestly, I don't think this deserves to be called a fic. This is the attempt that I made to novelize the cartoon series- Card Captors. (It goes without saying that I do not own it.) My goals were to carry on the memory of the show long after it was cancelled, and get others to find what I saw in it. I was in my early teens when I wrote this and had not heard of the term "fan fiction." It was so long ago that the file was on a **floppy disk**. Half of the chapters I typed were lost in an old computer, and my memories of the show are so fuzzy by now that there is no way this will be completed.

I leave you with an excerpt from the author's note I wrote as an introduction when I started this doomed project, followed by the first episode/chapter.

** Some might not like [Card Captors] in any form whatsoever. They live in the real world and are not interested in the supernatural. I think, though, that there are many out there that enjoy leaving reality for a time- even adults. Therefore, let me say this. You want to read on and tell me you don't like it for whatever the reason that is your business. Just don't tell me it is impossible and then go rent a Harry Potter movie. **

** If you wind up with any questions- do not think of directing them to me. I am doing my best to put down everything I have learned of the show. Anything that is unanswered will either have to be put to whoever wrote the series, what it was based on, or will remain a mystery.**

** Still reading, huh? Then it is time I described the setting of the story. It takes place in a town called Reedington (wherever that is supposed to be). I, for one, think it is beautiful. Now, then, understand that before the story even starts, Sakura Avalon's mother is dead. How it happened is never mentioned and that it happened isn't even discussed for a while. Even then it doesn't dwell there. **

** Hmm, I'm going to lose readers this way. Okay, I'll wrap it up. I hope you'll give this story a chance. The beginning has a touch of Sakura's narrative, from then on see for yourself.**

One Fateful Day

Sakura and Li are flying above sand swirling round and round. "It's a Clow card!" the boy exclaims. Suddenly they are heading downward when…

_You're probably wondering how I got in this mess_._ I mean why is a ten-year old girl flying above all that sand? It's a pretty amazing story_… (In the past Sakura is getting out of bed, ready for school and going there on her roller blades. Though she has her knee and elbow pads on, only a cap is resting on her brown hair)… _and this is how it all began_. The school bell rings- _made it_. During class Sakura is drawing something that resembles a teddy bear with wings.

"What is that?" Madison, her best friend, whispers.

"Sakura pick up reading where he left off," the teacher instructs.

"_I'll tell you later_," _I whispered as I stood up_.

"We're on line 23!" Madison answered.

_When I got home from school, neither dad nor my brother Tory was there_. _My home is white with a blue roof_. _I was about to get something from the refrigerator when I heard a strange noise coming from downstairs in dad's library_. _I picked up my baton and headed toward the door, hoping it was just the boiler but ready to call the police_.

Sakura walked down the stairs and saw no one there. She was almost ready to go upstairs when she saw a light appearing from some book. She headed over to it and picked it up.

_"The book of Clow," I read as I stood_. _Opening it up I found cards and had no sooner read the word on the top one (Windy) than all the others blew away! _

As she sank to her knees, a small, yellow creature began to rise out of the book (it looked a good deal like the drawing she had done in class).

"Oh, hello, little girl. Thank you for letting me out. I had been in that book for centuries…"

"_How does this toy work? Where are the batteries?" I asked, picking him up and examining him_.

"I'm not a toy!" he yelled as he wrenched free.

"_But_… _I don't understand!"_

"There are some things that are not easily explained. My name's KeroBeros. Call me Kero. I was taking a nap. I protect the Clow Cards. I keep them from getting into trouble- see?" he asked as he gestured toward the open, empty book. When he noticed it, his mouth fell open- "Ah! My cards! My beautiful cards! Where are they?"

"_Is this what you're looking for?" I asked, holding the card out to him_.

"Windy!" he cried, embracing it… "So, where are the rest of them?"

_When I told him, he was devastated_. _Later that night, when I had finished dinner, I went to take dessert up to my room_.

"Where are you going with that?" Tory called out.

"_To eat in my room!" I answered_._ When I got upstairs I handed the cup to Kero_.

"Pudding!" he exclaimed. "My favorite! Oh, but I don't deserve it. I let the Clow Cards escape."

"_The __what__?" I asked_.

"A long time ago a very powerful magician named Clow Reed created the Clow Cards. They were designed to be free spirits, but they got too out of control; and he imprisoned them in a book with a magical lock and key to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. I was chosen to be the guardian beast of cards, but I took a little nap."

"_How little?"_ _I inquired_.

He looked down, "Thirty years or so. I never said being a guardian was easy!"

"_Okay, okay_."

"So, what's your name?"

"_Sakura_."

"Well, Sakura, stand right over there," he pointed to a small distance away from him.

"_Alright," I said as I went to do as he said_.

"Key of the seal, you have chosen this girl- Sakura. I command you to empower her with the language of the staff!" As he spoke, a yellow circle with a star and a moon appeared. At the same time a key rose out of the book's lock, flew between them, and grew into a pink staff. "Take the staff, Sakura!"

_I obeyed, slowly coming forward, and grabbed it_.

"I, KeroBeros, guardian of the seal proclaim Sakura- card captor!"

_At first I smiled, then, "Huh? Hang on- I didn't promise to do anything!"_

"You let the cards free; you have to help me get them back."

"_But I can't_," by now he had begun to gulp down the pudding. "_Listen to me! I'm not old enough to capture cards!"_

"Well, you were old enough to let the cards escape," he replied.

"_They'd still be in the book if you hadn't taken a 30-year nap!" Suddenly I heard a noise outside, "What's that?" I wondered as I went over to the window (Kero followed)_.

"The fly card. Come on!"

"_Couldn't you have let me change?" I asked as I roller-bladed after the 'fly card'_.

"A true card captor can battle in anything- even pajamas!" he answered, "Fly has already revealed its visible form," he said looking up at the huge bird, "it shouldn't be hard for you to capture it."

"_But I don't know how…"_

"The words will come to you, Sakura. Use the staff!"

_I pulled out the key, "Oh key of Clow, power of magic, power of light; surrender the wand, the force ignite- release!" it turned back into the wand_._ "Now what? That was close!" _The bird had just swooped down lower, closer to them. _I tried skating in the opposite direction, even though Kero was encouraging me to go after it_. _"I've got an idea!" I started skating up the wall at the side of the sidewalk, and jumped on top of the bird_. _Hanging on, I threw my only card into the air, "Windy," I commanded, "form a ribbon to entangle and trap fly- Windy!" The card showed its spirit and obeyed- wrapping itself around the bird, which was forced to the ground_. _I jumped off and turned to face them, "Fly card, return to your power confined, Fly Card!"_ The bird changed into a card.

"Yeah! You did it Sakura; I knew I could count on you! Touch your wand to the card," Kero urged.

"_Why?"_

"Just do it," he insisted.

"_Fly!" I placed the wand's tip to the card_._ Next thing I know I'm riding the wand that has sprouted white wings, the same as the bird's was_.

"So, how do you like flying?"

"_It's great!"_

"I knew I could count on you, card captor Sakura!"

"_Yeah! Wait a minute, I still didn't agree to anything-" Kero was right- he could count on me and from that day on I was a card captor_—_which brings us back to today_.

Li falls off, down into the sand.

"_Li! Are you alright?"_

"Use the water card, Sakura," he instructs.

"_But that'll just…"_

"Just do it!"

"_Water_!" Another card pours water down and fills the sand.

"Freeze card!" Li touches his sword to a card of his own, turning the wet sand into ice, "Now Sakura!"

"_Sand card, return to your power confined, sand!" I flew down as soon as the sand lifted to see how Li was doing_. The card floats down, lands right between them, and both grab it at the same time.

_Following your destiny isn't always easy_;_ sometimes you just can't fight fate_.


	2. Chapter 2: Sakura's Rival

Sakura's Rival

_Splash! Sakura was at the pink radio tower, but she wasn't alone_. _A boy was there with her, he had brown hair like she did, and brown eyes to match_. _He was wearing special green robes, with a matching hat_. _He held a sword, and set his feet (wearing green shoes) out on the ledge- he was jumping off! …_

"Ouch!" Sakura woke up after falling out of her bed. As she got ready for school, she started talking. "Kero, I had a strange dream…"

"Well Sakura, you know your dreams can tell you what's going to happen in your future. You should pay attention to them," he advised her.

She nodded in agreement. Then Tory walked in. "Who were you talking to?" he asked.

"No one; haven't you heard of knocking?" she returned. Soon, she was skating after her older brother and his best friend- Julian Star. After she complained that Tory hadn't waited for her (and Tory told Julian 'she's 10 and still talks to imaginary friends'), she told them about her dream.

"Dreams can tell you about the future," Julian reminded her.

_That's just what Kero said!_ Sakura thought to herself.

"Just this morning I dreamed I would have French toast for breakfast and I did!" Julian finished. Before long, Sakura had arrived at school. Her teacher introduced a new exchange student to the class- Li Shoran. He was the boy from her dream! Later, in the schoolyard, Li approached her. He was carrying something.

"What's that?" she asked.

"Well, it's not Chinese Checkers," he said (though it did resemble the game), "it's a Lazen-board," he continued. "Elements- wind, water, lightning, wood, earth, fire- force know my plight- release the light!" When he had finished, a bright blue light rose from the center of the board and pointed straight at Sakura. "I knew it!" he exclaimed, "It _is_ you." Sakura was bewildered. "The Clow Cards- hand them over!" he demanded.

"How do you know about them?" she wondered.

"Doesn't matter; you let the cards escape?"

"Yeah..."

"But you got some of them back, didn't you?"

"Yeah, a few. I'm working on it," she defended herself.

"You're supposed to be a card captor? You're pretty pathetic, you know," he shot at her.

Sakura leaned against the fence, embarrassed, "so I hear."

"Give me the cards," he repeated.

"No!" she struggled against him as he tried to take the cards by force. Just then, Tory spotted them and climbed over the fence to face Li.

"No one messes with my sister," the tall boy warned, "Why don't you leave before someone gets hurt- namely you."

(Meanwhile Madison came over to see how Sakura was doing. "It was nothing I couldn't handle" she assured her.)

Li wasn't afraid of Tory and stood poised, ready to fight.

"Hey!" Julian called to them as he followed Tory over the fence, his brown eyes shining. Apparently unaware of the upcoming battle, he turned toward his friend and started talking to him about the test they'd had that day. "Good thing we studied, huh? I've got food-" he opened his paper bag and started handing out cookies "One for you, one for you, one for you, and-" he turned towards Li, "one for you."

Li had been watching, remaining in a fighting posture, but eyes opened wide, he seemed confused. Julian's offer was too much. He took off and started running. He tripped and fell in the dirt, but scrambled up and kept going.

"What's the matter with him?" Julian asked.

As Sakura walked home, Madison asked her what she would do.

"I don't know, but I bet Kero does. He's probably at home right now, planning our next move."

_At the same time, Kero was fast asleep_.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Madison agreed. "I almost forgot!" she pulled out two pink cell phones and handed it to Sakura, "it's from mom. One for you and one for Kero." All of a sudden, the sky darkened and lightning flashed. The girls ran under the penguin slide that they were about to pass. After flashing a few more times, the sky cleared as suddenly as it had darkened.

"What was that?" Sakura wondered. When she got home, and she found Kero sleeping in mid-air, she yelled, "Kero- wake up! A strange thing happened today in the schoolyard." By the time she finished telling him the story, he had begun eating soup.

"Maybe it's time for a little history lesson. Magic is an art. Most magicians practice a type handed down to them through generations- they are born into the craft. My master Clow Reed created something different when he created the Clow cards."

"Great, but what does all of this have to do with Li Shoran?"

"Yeah, I'm getting to that."

"What do you mean?"

"Li Shoran is a descendent," he paused to take a sip, "of Clow Reed."

"Oh no!" she exclaimed, "If he's a descendent of Clow Reed, I should have given him the cards after all!" Kero shook his head.

"It doesn't work that way."

"What do you mean?"

"Sakura, try and keep up with me! The cards were in the book- you broke the book's seal- only a person with magical powers can do that- don't you see? You have the right to them." _As he spoke, the cards rose up and started glowing and swirling around the girl_.

"Yeah…" All of a sudden, lightening flashed and thunder rolled again. Sakura walked to the window, with Kero following. They had another card to capture. In minutes the two were flying in the air.

"Now Sakura," Kero asked, "did this Li kid have any magical objects with him?"

"Yeah," Sakura answered, "he called it a Lazen-board."

"That gives him the ability to sense Clow cards, which might mean trouble for us," Kero warned. Just then they landed on a rooftop.

"Boy, you really are pathetic, aren't you?" a voice sounded. They turned around.

"Oh, hi Li!" Sakura blushed. Li started aiming his powers at the lightning, until it took the form of a creature.

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

"You are looking at Ri-ju the thunder beast," Li told her.

"The Windy Card will take care of this- here," Sakura held the card out to Li.

"Put it away- Windy can't stand up to thunder," the boy refused.

"But, the windy card helped me before," Sakura pointed out.

"You have the Shadow Card, don't you?" Li asked.

"Yeah…"

"Then use it," he responded.

"Shadow Card!" Shadow stopped thunder in its tracks. "Thunder Card- return to your power confined- Shadow!" Sakura sealed the card.

"You really are pathetic," the boy repeated. Then he saw Kero for the first time. "Who is that?"

"That's Kero," Sakura informed him.

"What?" he stared, "KeroBeros- the guardian beast of the seal of the Clow- the greatest warrior beast that ever lived- is a stuffed animal?!" as he spoke, he pointed at Kero, who bit his finger at this last remark.

"Serves you right," Sakura said.

"I'll have you know I was appointed by Clow Reed himself," Kero yelled.

"A lot of good that did," Li turned and left, passing Madison with her video camera.

"Hi Li!" she greeted him, even as he grunted. She shook her head, and walked over to Sakura, who was feeling hurt. "Hey, you sealed the card."

"Yeah…" Sakura mumbled, watching Li leave.

**Author's Note: Thank you, IronAmerica, for reviewing!**


	3. Chapter 3: Time Out

Time Out

Sakura walked into school the next day, and went over to Li. She had been thinking about the previous nights' events. "Li?"

"What? Oh, you don't know what you're doing."

"Then how come I opened the book? Look, I know I haven't practiced magic all my life, like some people, and I know I don't have any special robes-"

"THOSE ARE THE SHORAN FAMILY ROBES! You have no right to talk about them," Li warned her.

Just then, their classmate Zack, broke in. "Hey, Li, you're new here. It's my job to assign the jobs in the classroom. You have to wash all the boards now, and how do you feel about…." He started to list the things he wanted Li to do.

"His tall tales saved the day," Madison told Sakura. Later that day, their class had a test in instrumental music. "Remember to breathe," Madison whispered as Sakura went up for her turn. Still, Sakura faltered in the middle of the song. At recess, she watched Li come out of the building, and score a soccer ball that came flying his way. In the evening, after Kero was finished saving the score of a video game he finally won, Sakura practiced her music.

"I thought you finished your music test," Kero questioned her.

"I know, but I'm going to be ready next time, and no one will know what's coming," she smiled.

"Expect the unexpected," Kero grinned.

"Exactly!" In the morning, Sakura woke up and went to school. "Ready for our music test, Sakura?" Madison asked.

"Yeah. Didn't- didn't we have our music test yesterday?" she asked. Sakura went up and aced her test. Later she talked to Madison, "I must have dreamed I was going to fail." Li walked out of the school, and hit the soccer ball, right on cue.

"Sakura, doesn't it feel like we've been here before, done this already?" he asked.

"It does!"

"The time card." At home, Kero turned on the video game- "What do you mean no information saved?" Later that night, Sakura and Kero went outside, with Madison filming and complimenting the costume she had made for her friend. Li showed, and they prepared to go after the card. Sakura flew up with Kero, towards the clock tower the card was in. As they approached, their speed decreased.

"_What's happening, Kero?" _Sakura asked.

"_Time is slowing us down_." Just as they got close, the clock sped up to midnight and- turned back the day again. (It can only go back a day, once a day.) This process repeated several times. Once, Li showed up with a bandage on his nose.

"What happened to him?" Madison inquired.

"He got hit by the soccer ball," Sakura informed her.

"Well, did he at least score a goal?"

"It was a lucky shot." This time, they approached the tower on the ground and walked up. Time tried to stop them, but Sakura used the shield card. Then time started out the window.

"He's getting away!" they screamed (for the card's true form was a man with an hourglass). Li used his lightning power to trap the card and Sakura sealed it. But now, the time card floated over to Li. Sakura turned to Kero.

"The card doesn't always go to the person who seals it," he looked at her confused face. "Hey, if I knew all the answers, do you think I'd look like this?"

The next day, Sakura showed up for school with her flute in her backpack. "Here's hoping today's another day," she said.

"Well, I guess I wouldn't notice. What's with the flute?"

"Just in case we have another music test."

"Sakura, our music test was yesterday- today we have a spelling test."

"What?"


	4. Chapter 4: Sword & Washed Up

**S-W-O-R-D**

One day, Sakura invited two of her friends to come over after school to study for a spelling bee. Among those invited was Rita, who was nervous about how she would do. Before going to the Avalon's home, the girls stopped by a store. Each of them picked out a brooch and purchased them. Sakura chose a little red heart with white wings on the sides. Rita, in turn, selected a little shining sword. When they got to the house, they started testing each other.

"Rita, spell brooch," Sakura asked at last.

"Hmm, that's a hard one. B-R-, um, um…"

"Maybe we should put them on for some inspiration," Madison suggested. All of the girls fastened on their brooches, including Rita. When it was time for Rita to retry spelling the word, her face went blank. Suddenly, her sword brooch _grew_. It became a real sword and she started lashing out with it. Kero (who couldn't stand being stuck upstairs) flew down, and found out.

"That's the sword card!" he exclaimed. They ran outside and Sakura started jumping away with another card. She didn't understand what was going on. "The sword card's instinct is to fight, even when there are no enemies in sight," Kero explained. Li came out, and pulled out his own sword as soon as he caught sight of Rita.

"Li- no stop! Don't hurt Rita," Sakura urged him.

"No one has to get hurt if we can knock the sword out of Rita's hands," Kero pointed out. That gave Sakura an idea.

"Illusion Card, show Rita what she fears the most- Illusion!"

Rita stared at the image shown to her, "Mr. Toroto?" she asked, naming one of her teachers. Sakura used the opportunity to force the card away from Rita and sealed it. Rita collapsed promptly. Just then, Julian came by to ask what was going on, and Li again took off as fast as he could.

"What's wrong with him?" they wondered.

The next day at school, Rita asked if her lost brooch had shown up since yesterday.

"No," Sakura said, and she offered Rita a little wrapped item. Rita was puzzled, and opened it to find the brooch Sakura had bought for herself. "I felt sorry you lost yours," she shrugged.

**Washed Up**

Sakura pushed her face closer to the tank in the aquarium and gazed at the creatures. "Looks like you've made a friend, Sakura. Maybe you should be in there swimming with them," one of her friends said.

"Swimming with those guys? No way- they may look friendly, but they can sting you," she told them.

"Guys the penguin show is about to start!" Everyone gathered around to watch. It looked great. Then after a while, something went wrong. Somehow a whirlpool started and the penguin was having trouble. Plus the trainer's leg got caught.

"Help!" the trainer screamed. Suddenly, Tory ran over and helped her break free from it. When Sakura got home, she started cooking breakfast.

"Can't these pancakes come any faster?" Kero asked.

"Did anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?" Sakura retorted, "Kero something strange happened at the aquarium today- a penguin got caught in a whirlpool. Are you listening?" When they were finished, she gave some to Kero. Then they heard Tory come in. "Quick, go upstairs!" she said as she flung Kero there. Turning to her brother, she inquired, "What were you doing at the aquarium today?"

"What did it look like I was doing?"

"Tory-"

"I'm helping out there- feed the penguins and stuff. Lucky I was there," he told her, before grabbing at her pancakes.

"Hey! Those are mine!" When she went upstairs, Kero was feeling hurt.

"_Treats me like a stuffed animal you can't do that_… Sakura I've been thinking about what you said. Penguins are very good swimmers and that shouldn't have happened. Which makes me think it is the water card. Clow Reed made four element cards more powerful than the other cards- wind, water, fire and earth. To capture the water card, you need to use two of your three ally cards- the first three you got- wind, fly and shadow." She remembered the wind and fly cards. "Now concentrate on your third ally- shadow." She remembered the dark figure of the card and how she had used windy to capture it. "Windy, fly, and shadow. You may use any two in combination."

"Can't you help me out here?"

"Nope- this is another test you have to take."

The next day Sakura paced the ground outside, "Windy, fly, shadow. Windy-fly, windy-shadow, fly-shadow…" She put her hands in a water fountain, "how do you capture water?" Madison walked up to her.

"The answer will come to you, Sakura. I know it will. Don't worry," she assured her friend. That day they all went to the aquarium- Sakura, Madison, and Kero. Right outside the entrance, they ran into Julian. Everyone walked in together. Julian told Sakura he'd get her ice-cream later. They looked at the fish.

"I could watch them all day," Julian said.

"_All__ day?_" Sakura asked. "Come on, let's go get that ice-cream," she urged him.

"Why are you in such a hurry?" he wondered.

"No reason- I just really like ice-cream," she replied.

"How come she gets to have ice-cream?" Kero complained to Madison. A little kid passed by.

"Mommy, look, toy bear!"

"Back off kid!" Kero snapped. The kid was startled, and upset. Tory took Sakura and Julian's order.

"Sure you can handle that squirt?" he asked his sister. He went to bring it to them. Then a tank close by them broke and the water flowed everywhere! Tory rushed back to help Sakura.

"Guess we'll have to cancel that ice-cream, Tory. Nothing like a swim to cool you down, huh Sakura?" Julian pointed out.

_Cool you down?_ Sakura thought, _that's it!_ That evening, when everyone else had left, Sakura, Madison and Kero sneaked back into the aquarium.

"I haven't taken swimming lessons in this body. I assume you have a plan, Sakura?" Kero asked.

"I sure do," she informed him.

"What is it?"

"You'll see." Madison had split with them, and now she called Sakura on her cell phone.

"The freezer is right where you thought it would be." Sakura walked right up to the nearest container of water and said, "Water card, if you're here, come and get me!"

"Sakura, _this_ is your plan?!"

"Fly!" Sakura commanded, ignoring Kero and flying away from the card now chasing her. They were coming up to a room, and she tricked water inside before yelling "windy!" She shut the door behind the two cards.

"You did it, Sakura- you passed the test!" Kero announced.

"Thanks. Hey, it's probably time now," she opened the door to a frozen card. "Water, return to your power confined, water!"


	5. Chapter 5: Tough Decisions & Power Up

**Tough Decisions**

"Is Dash ever going to slow down?" Sakura asked, as she and Kero flew after another card.

"Dash goes fast, but it only goes for short distances. The card will stop eventually- once it is worn out," he assured her. Soon Dash crashed nearby. They were about to follow it, when they heard voices coming and left. The next day they returned to the area, prepared.

"A baseball uniform," Sakura looked at her current outfit, "now this is a costume I could deal with. Thanks, Madison," she told her friend. Sakura threw a ball over the wall she had seen Dash disappear over the night before. Then she walked up to the house and out came her friend Rita. "Rita- you live here?"

"Yeah, is this your ball, Sakura?" she held it up.

"Yes, it is."

"Come in, Sakura" Rita offered. Sakura saw a cage, with the Dash card (which looked like a rabbit in its true form) inside. "That's hoppy- my good luck charm for the race," Rita said gesturing towards the cage. Dash hissed at Sakura.

"I see…" Sakura turned to go.

"Good luck with baseball practice, Sakura!" Since Rita had come across 'hoppy' she started to run faster during her practicing for the race. One day, Dash got loose.

"Sakura, what are you waiting for- seal the card! Dash will just get stronger if you wait," Kero told her.

"I can't. Rita thinks it's her good luck charm for the race, helping her go faster," Sakura said.

"You can't let her use magic to win and make her think it was all her. What kind of a friend would you be?" Kero pointed out. Sakura sped up away from him, and he rushed to her. "Sakura, sometimes the choice you have to make, isn't always the choice you want to make."

"Oh, Kero…" Suddenly, Li spotted Dash, unaware of the situation. He was about to go after it. "Li stop!" Sakura sealed the card and told Li what was going on.

"You mean you knew Dash was here all along and you didn't do anything?" he asked. Then they heard something and turned.

"Hoppy, Hoppy come back! Hoppy!" Rita called a short distance away. The next day was the race. Just before the start, Rita thought she saw something. "Hoppy?" Rita won the race. Sakura ran over to Li, who for once was wearing casual clothes. She too, had seen a figure on the track.

"Li- did you just release the dash card?"

"I am surprised at you, Sakura. Did you actually think Rita needed magic to win?" he walked away. Sakura realized something- _Rita didn't need magic to win, she just needed confidence_.

**Power Up**

Sakura's class was going on a trip to the zoo. Before she left she heard on the news that the large, heavy penguin slide in Reedington Park had somehow been turned over. She checked it out on her way over. At the zoo, the class split up into groups to photograph the animals (naturally, Madison had the camera in Sakura's group). At lunchtime, when Sakura opened her book-bag to eat, she found that Kero had stowed away, and had already started her lunch.

Then somehow, the elephants had broken out! Everyone started running away- or almost everyone. "Sakura, Madison- you're going the wrong way!"

"It's a good thing no one's around to see you use your magic," Kero told Sakura. She got out her wand. An elephant was being lifted high into the air, and then started falling. She used windy to save it.

"Power, I dare you to show yourself!" she yelled.

Madison turned to Kero, "I know Sakura's getting good, but should she be talking like that?"

"You _have_ to talk to power that way," he explained. The card appeared- a little girl dressed all in pink.

"That's power?"

"Don't be fooled by her appearance," Kero warned. "Sakura, you have to name a challenge."

"Tug-of-war!" They grabbed a rope from the zoo and started; just when it looked like the card would win, Sakura's side got a better grip on the rope. She turned around to find that the elephants were helping her. Unknown to them all, Li Shoran was up in the trees, watching.

"She'll never pull this off. Time card- freeze the moment!" He jumped down, took Power's end of the rope out of her hands, went back and resumed time. Power fell down, and Sakura sealed the card.

"I did it!" she turned around, "but I didn't do it alone. Thank you," she said to the elephants.

"Then there's only one more thing to do," Madison told her. The next day, she met Sakura outside, "I got the pictures from yesterday."

"Let me see. Oh no- not that picture!" The wind picked up that one and blew it over to Julian. He looked at the image of Sakura setting the penguin slide right side up, again.

"I morphed it on my computer," Madison lied.

"Well, I figured that," he said, "you'd have to be some kind of magician to do that for real."


	6. Chapter 6: The New Rival

**The New Rival**

One morning on their way to school, Tory and Sakura were arguing, again. "One of these days…" Sakura warned her brother.

"Watch out Tory," Julian advised him, "she might be the one fighting people in the park." Li came to school later than usual, with a troubled expression on his face. Right behind him walked a girl with a light complexion, black hair, and eyes that looked red in the light.

"Li! You promised you'd come to school with me," she frowned. The teacher summoned her to the front of the room.

"Class, we have a new student. Meet Meilin Grey- she's from Li Shoran's hometown."

Sakura turned around in her seat to face Li. "Li, do you know this girl? What's she like?" she asked, curious. Her answer came in the form of Meilin rushing over.

"Listen girl- stay away from Li." At lunch that day, in the yard, Meilin spoke with Li. "Remember when we used to pretend we were card captors?"

"Yes, but now I _am_ a card captor, Meilin."

"But I thought that the Lazen-board said someone else was a card captor."

"Yeah, well, they're not very good at it," he remarked.

"That's because no one's as good as you Li," Meilin smiled.

"She just stumbled into this," he went on.

"I knew it! The new card captor is a girl- that girl right over there- Sakura," Meilin pointed angrily. Sakura shuddered. In gym class, the teacher asked both of them to demonstrate some of their best moves. It turned out to be quite a competition.

"She's on my case," Sakura told Kero that evening, as she lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling. "It's like she's looking for a fight."

"So fight her," he shrugged.

She shook her head as she heard the call for dinner, and got up. "I don't want to fight anyone; I just want to capture the cards. I'll bring you dessert," and she went downstairs to eat. Julian was eating dinner with them that night. They looked at the newspaper.

"I find it strange they haven't caught her yet," Mr. Avalon remarked.

"She hasn't stolen anything, just taking on masters and beating them all. They're too ashamed to come forward," Julian explained.

"It's a test of strength. Tory- you're taking karate- isn't that one of the disciplines?" his father asked.

"Well, sure, you're always looking for worthy opponents."

"Where does this happen?" Sakura asked.

"Well let's see," Julian consulted the article, "in Reedington Park. Authorities are looking for a young girl in an unusual costume."

"Unusual costume?" she laughed nervously. "I really don't want to get caught dressed like this tonight, Madison," she said at the park later, commenting on her friend's latest design, "and I don't think Kero's thrilled about the pink sleeves."

"He isn't?" Madison asked.

"I definitely sense a Clow Card- do you sense it, Sakura?" Kero asked.

"Yeah, I do!"

"A Clow Card that beats people- which one is that?" Madison asked.

"The fight card!" They looked up to see Meilin on top of a lamppost.

"Hi, Meilin!" She jumped down.

"Oh, you must be Li's girlfriend," Kero teased.

"Is this some kind of robotic toy?" Meilin asked.

"This is KeroBeros, the guardian beast…" Sakura introduced him.

"Whatever. You may have your guardian beast, but Li Shoran has me. So you can take a hike, girl!" Meilin told her.

"Meilin!" Li rushed over. "The Lazen-board- hand it over." She did.

"It didn't work anyway," she complained.

"How could you take it out of my house?" he demanded.

"Wei promised he wouldn't tell. I wanted to find out where the card was and I asked him to help me, but even Wei couldn't figure it out. So I just sort of winged it."

"Interesting," Kero said, putting the pieces together.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, clueless as to what this all meant.

"The girl has no magic powers," he informed her.

"Really?"

"Oh she's practiced, but she has no magical lineage." The fight card appeared, dressed in blue.

"That looks like a young girl in a very strange costume alright," Sakura moaned.

"The design is actually very millennium," Madison commented. The card bowed at them, and Sakura bowed back. Then Meilin grabbed the card's attention. "It wants to fight her?"

"Well, let's hope she's as good as she thinks she is," Kero put in. Meilin fought the card for a while, and it seemed she was winning, when the card made a comeback.

"Want to go again?" they fought on, but as Meilin lifted her leg in an attempt to kick the card, she grabbed Meilin and threw her. Li tried to stop the card, but then he was thrown. Meilin got up again, and ran over. "Li! Oh no- he's hurt! That's it," she turned around, "You may be a Clow Card, but I'm Meilin Grey!" She attacked the card.

"Meilin!"

"Li, are you alright?" Sakura asked. He held his arm. "I've got to admit, she's pretty good."

"But fighting…with a Clow Card is…different." When at last Meilin could take no more, Li moved forward to try again.

"Wait Li- let me handle this," Sakura held him back. "Kero, which card should I use?"

"The only way to stop the fight card is to fight," he informed her.

"Fight? Are you sure that's the only way?" she stammered.

"You did it with the power card before," Madison reminded her.

"That's it! Power Card, give your power to this wand, Power!" The fight card came running towards Sakura, who hit her on the head with her wand. She fell over, and once sealed, went to Sakura. Meilin was disappointed that it didn't go to Li. "Excuse me," Sakura tried to comfort her, "it was really a team effort because if you hadn't tired out the card first, I couldn't have-" Meilin wouldn't listen.

"There are bound to be some glitches along the way," Kero shrugged.

"You call her a glitch?" Madison asked.

"Mmmn, I do. Just a minor glitch."

**Author's Note: I'd like to thank halliwells for the tip. I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that the series is available online. This quite probably makes this work obsolete, but in my defense, I wrote this before I'd ever heard of DSL, let alone had it.**


	7. 7: Too Hot to Handle & Double or Nothing

**Too Hot to Handle**

_Sakura was having that dream again_._ She was at the radio tower, with Kero, and there were Clow Cards all around them_._ Wait! There was someone there in the shadows… what did they want? Sakura had to find out, had to go there, she jumped…_ Ouch! She woke up and found herself on the floor. That wasn't the first time she had had that dream- what did it mean? She didn't want to ask Kero; maybe she could figure it out herself. She told Meilin about it.

"I don't know; that is weird. Hey, ask Li Shoran about it! He'll know- he knows everything," was her confident solution. Later, Sakura paced up and down her room, debating whether or not to call Li after all. Kero got tired of watching her pace, and dialed the number for her. She didn't wait for him to say anything.

"Hello, look I've got to talk to you. Would you go to the carnival coming up this weekend with me? Wait, is this Li? Julian?" she glared at Kero.

"Whoops! Hey, those phones are hard to use," he said in his defense. Sakura didn't know what to say to Julian, so she wound up going with him to the carnival after all. Soon after they got there, fire broke out! It was the fire card. Sakura pulled out the key.

"Oh key of Clow, power of magic, power of light, surrender the wand, the force ignite!" She used her magic to put everyone to sleep (Julian started snoozing right away). Then she tried using windy to blow out the fire, but it just spread. She pulled out the water card, when Kero stopped her.

"Sakura, no! If fire used windy to fan the flames, it'll just use water the same way. You have to use them both at the same time!" It worked. "Fire Card return to your power confined- Fire!" Sakura got the card. Kero beamed at her.

"You're getting close to sealing all the cards, and you got fire which is important to me. Soon I'll have all my powers back," he said right before he took off flying high into the sky. Sakura woke everyone up, and enjoyed the rest of the carnival.

**Double or Nothing**

Some girls from school were in a store, when they saw Sakura walk in. She trashed the store, and then ran off! Meilin confronted her about it later.

"I didn't do that!" Sakura insisted.

"Avalon, I know what I saw." People kept seeing someone like Sakura acting strangely. One day, Julian came over to see Tory, and was shocked to see Sakura was there, too.

"I could have sworn that I just saw you outside," he told her.

"Don't encourage her, Julian. She'd clone herself just to spite me," Tory joked.

"Where do I sign?" she asked. Finally, she talked to Kero. "This girl keeps doing horrible things, and everyone thinks it's me."

"I think it's time I taught you another way to use the Clow Cards. Arrange the cards on the table, exactly as I tell you," he instructed her. When it was done, there was a bunch of cards there, one close to her, three in the middle, and one after that. "Repeat after me- Ancient cards of Clow, give me vision now."

"Ancient cards of Clow, give me vision now."

"Turn over that one." It was windy. "Now we know how the other card found out about you- windy must have spread the word. Now turn over those three- they'll tell us what we're up against." They were shadow, water, and illusion. "Alright, turn over the last card, it will tell us what the card is after." It was flower. Sakura stared at it, and a vision of Tory under a cherry blossom tree came to her.

"The Clow Card's after Tory!" She ran out the door with Kero following.

Tory saw Sakura. "Hi, Tory. I must have dropped something, would you help me look for it?" she asked. Meanwhile, the real Sakura found Li.

"Li, please use the board to find my brother," she pleaded.

"Okay. Elements- wind, water, lightning, wood, earth, fire- force know my plight- release the light!" The light pointed them in the direction. Tory was still looking around.

"It must be over there," the girl told him. He walked further away from her, into the bushes- and fell over a small cliff! The girl bent over him.

"You're not my sister Sakura, are you?"

"No."

"Are you lost?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's one way of putting it, lost."

"Well, we all have to help each other. I don't know…where you belong…" he passed out just as Sakura, Li, and Kero arrived.

"Tory!" she rushed over to her brother. "Oh, no, he's hurt! Water!" Water didn't affect the card.

"Attack cards aren't going to work. It's a helix- you have to name it," Kero told her. Sakura approached the card.

"Don't get too close!" Li warned.

"Clow Card, you hurt my brother Tory!" Sakura yelled. She thought, _water, shadow, illusion- something to do with these three_. _Shadow moves like a person's body- water reflects- and an illusion isn't real_. She looked up and took a step back- the card did, too. _It's copying me- I've got it!_ "Clow Card, your name is Mirror!" It revealed its true form- a silver girl. Before being sealed, the card went to Tory and apologized.

Sakura helped Tory out. He had to stay off of his leg for a while, but there was no serious damage. Still, she felt guilty. "It's a good thing Tory doesn't remember anything- I wouldn't know how to explain it," she told Kero. "How many more people are going to get hurt because I'm a card captor?"

"It isn't going to be easy, but I have faith in you Sakura," he answered.


	8. Chapter 8: Lucky Shot

**Lucky Shot**

During gym class, the teacher was testing the students with a jump exercise. Nikki, who wore glasses, wasn't the type to get excited over this- nervous on the other hand…"Why do they make us bookworms take gym?" she asked. Her turn came- and she aced it. "I did it," she smiled.

"It was those magic cards we bought, Nick," a friend put in. They showed their wondering classmates (including Sakura, Madison, and Meilin) cards they had bought for luck. Nikki had a jump card.

"What do you think, Sakura?" Madison whispered.

"It kind of looks like a Clow Card," she answered.

"That's not really Jump, right?"

"Nope; I'll never forget that capture." _Sakura remembered one of her early captures, where she didn't know much about the cards_. _She'd managed to grab the pink card when it jumped high into the air, and she pulled out her wand_. _Once back on the ground, she used the wood card to trap Jump_.

To the others she asked, "Where did you get them?"

"Maggie's store has them, now," someone answered.

"Interesting," Sakura said.

"Yeah," Meilin added, "very interesting." Sakura told Kero about them after school.

"Sounds like they're wasting their allowances on these things," he said.

"They seem to think they're magic," she told him.

"The only magic cards are the Clow Cards," he assured her. Sakura went downstairs. Her father was going to teach her how to make dumplings. They were almost done, and he told her to take them out of the water. _Too hot!_ She backed away.

"Forgot to test the temperature?" he asked his daughter. She nodded. Tory came home later and saw the dumplings.

"One of your experiments?" he teased Sakura.

"For your information, dad made them."

"That's good to know," he picked one up, "that means they're safe to eat." The next day Sakura and Madison went over to Maggie's store to check out the cards. Meilin passed by them as they went in. They looked at the selection.

"Hey, there's even a card for photography!" Madison picked up a card. "Not that I'd need it with my new digital camera…" she looked at Sakura. "What is it?"

"I'm sensing a Clow Card. Let me try to find where it's coming from." She walked slowly around the store, and then turned. "It is coming from the card rack." She turned it around slowly. "There!" she pointed to an empty space on the rack. "Maggie!"

"Yes?" the store owner asked.

"Do you remember which card was right here on the rack?" Sakura asked.

"The shot card, I think. The cards arrived a week ago from a company I never heard of. I almost threw them away- good thing I didn't," Maggie informed her.

"Can you try to remember who bought the shot card?"

"It was one of your friends," she shrugged.

"Which one? Please, try to remember," Sakura pleaded.

"Oh dear," Maggie concentrated, "it might have been Rita or Nikki-"

"Thanks Maggie!" Sakura and Madison rushed out of the store. Sakura pulled out her cell phone and called Kero (who had been playing a video game-'pause, pause!').

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Kero, we've got trouble! One of the cards Maggie sold was a real Clow Card."

"What? Which card was it?"

"Maggie said it was the shot card."

"The shot card! That's dangerous. If the person holding the card says its name, the first person it sees becomes its target." Kero flew to meet them. They had to find the card fast.

"I'll have to risk flying by day," Sakura pulled out the fly card and she and Madison got on.

"Look- there they are!" Madison pointed. They landed nearby and ran to meet them.

"Rita, Nikki, please show me your magic cards," Sakura politely demanded. They showed her the few she had. "Is this all?" Sakura asked, finding no Clow Card in the bunch. She left, disappointed.

"Wait- I might get more!" Rita called after her. The girls and Kero ran into Li. They explained the situation. Madison went to search on foot, and Li was told to get on the wand and fly with Sakura. He hesitated.

"Come on, Li!" they got into the air. "Neither Rita nor Nikki had the card, so who does?" They approached the school, and saw Meilin walking below them, holding a card. "Of course- Meilin. We saw her leaving the store," Sakura remembered.

"Well, it may not be a real Clow Card, but it might fool Li," Meilin thought to herself. They descended and confronted her. She was thrilled to hear it was a real Clow Card. "Now I can be a card captor, too!"

"Meilin, give us the card!" They tried to take it from her, but she held on to it tight.

"That's my shot card!"

"Oh, no- she said the card's name!" Li yelled.

"She activated it!" Sakura exclaimed. They ran as the card became a pink light aiming for its target. "It's after Li!" He ran as fast as he could and kept the card away from the others. He was at the school fence, when Sakura got an idea.

"Hey, Li!" she motioned and he caught it.

"Got ya, Sakura." She pulled out the mirror card, and he ran towards her, with the shot card behind him. As he got close, he swerved to the side, and the shot card continued after his reflection. It hit the mirror and was bounced back to the fence showing its true form as a girl with wild pink and yellow hair. Sakura sealed it, and Madison was there in time to film the others helping Li up.

That evening, dressed in a simple blue dress, Sakura gave the dumplings another try. This time she did it. She took some up to Kero, and they talked.

"You don't need a card to achieve something," he told her between mouthfuls, "you can do anything you put your mind to. For instance, these dumplings are delicious!"


	9. Chapter 9: Dragon Slayer

**Dragon Slayer**

"Is that a good book, Nikki?" Sakura asked her friend who took her brown eyes out of the story she had been reading.

"Yeah," she smiled.

"What's it about?" Nikki held up the cover, with a picture of a huge winged creature. "Ooh, dragons!" At lunch the girls started talking about dragons, when from out of nowhere, Meilin came over.

"If you want to know about dragons ask Li Shoran. He'll know everything about them- he knows everything about everything. Now where is he?"

"I think I saw him heading up over there," one of them pointed.

"Yeah, I knew that," Meilin smiled and went after Li. He was out at the fence, staring off at the town. "There you are!" Meilin ran up. "Like I told you earlier, my mom gave me way too much for lunch- so if you want to split it- What is it?"

"I think I sense something," he replied.

"Does that mean what I think it means?"

That afternoon a bunch of the girls were going shopping. Nikki went into a book store, and Sakura and Madison were following behind.

"Nikki will only go to this particular store because it carries the most estensive selection of books," Sakura explained.

"What a fanatic!" Madison grinned. Sakura stopped.

"I sense a Clow Card," she whispered, "I'll have to come back later, when there aren't that many people around."

"Are you two coming or not?" Nancy popped her head through the door.

"Coming," they entered. Nikki was walking among the rows of books. She stopped and pulled an old one from a shelf.

_'This looks like one of those old books where you get to write the rest of it in the back- yeah- it is!' _she thought to herself, finding numerous blank pages at the end of the writing. '_There's even an old writing quill'_ that settled it. "Wrap it up!" That evening Sakura and Madison came back to that street with Kero. They looked up at the roof of the building next to them- which Meilin (in her white outfit) and Li in his Shoran robes were on top of. They jumped down and started arguing.

"We knew about the card this afternoon," Kero said.

"Well we knew about it since lunch time," Meilin put in.

"We know where it is, don't we, Sakura?" Kero asked.

"So do we, right, Li?" Meilin turned to him. Sakura and Li nodded and pointed. In the darkness in front of them, they saw a pair of yellow eyes coming closer.

"Oh, it is just a cat," Sakura sighed and looked down.

"I think you should look again," Kero advised. She looked up, the cat (black on top with a white belly) was there and **huge**! It was taller than they were with a width to match! The cat came up to Meilin.

"I love cats, _honestly_!" she pleaded for mercy. Sakura and Madison flew up out of the way, and Li faced the cat. It turned away from Meilin and pounced on Li, where he started licking the boy. Knowing they had to find the big card, Sakura looked around. She spotted plants taller than the buildings and flew down.

"There- the Big Card!" Kero pointed to a blue maiden sitting by a pool of water. "Careful, the Big Card can cause a lot of trouble just by sitting around," he warned. As if taking that as a cue, the card touched a fish swimming by and it fell out of the water, much larger than normal.

"I see what you mean," Sakura was ready. "Big Card, return to your power confined-Big!" Once the card was sealed, everything it had enlarged shrank back to its usual size.

Madison picked up the fish and put him back in, "Here you go, Mr. Fish."

"Stupid cat! That was Li's Clow Card and you ruined it," Meilin picked it up by its fur, off of Li.

"Meow," it said innocently. The others caught up with them.

"Li would have captured that card if it wasn't for that cat," Meilin defended him.

"No-no-no, Li would have been kitty's lunch if Sakura hadn't sealed the card," Kero returned. They walked on and wound up in the park.

Meanwhile, Nikki, in her home, just finished reading her new book. "What a great story! Enchanters-dragons…," she picked up her quill. "Now what will I write about?"

Something was up, they could feel it. A breeze picked up for a moment, and the group stood still. Then, they thought they saw someone. Looked like a yellowish girl- but she disappeared.

_'The enchanter walked over the bridge…'_ wrote Nikki.

Wait! There was another over there- a pink hippo?! With a weird expression on his face. What was going on? Yellow wings sprouted. Suddenly the place was full of winged animals.

_'Then the animals realized they all had wings, and wanted to try them, too,'_ Nikki continued.

"Any thoughts there, cardcaptors?" Kero asked.

"A Clow Card with a sense of humor?" Sakura suggested.

"The Create Card! Someone is writing about all this," Kero explained.

"You mean someone writes this down, and it just appears?" Li asked.

"Yeah. Normally nothing serious happens, but this time the card must've gotten in touch with someone very imaginative."

_'Now they could protect themselves against the one who had been stealing all their food_._ Suddenly the creature-' _ the wind really started picking up now _'-with the biggest wings of all appeared_._'_

"A dragon!" It was a giant dark pink one, with yellow eyes it started to move. "Kero what should I do?" Sakura asked.

"Relax. The card only creates at night, so tomorrow morning this will all be over."

"It is headed for the town," she noted.

"Clow Reed never thought dragons would be a problem," Kero frowned.

"What can we do? The dragon's too big-" Madison pointed out.

"Big- that's it!" Sakura used the Big Card to grow to the dragon's height. She bent down to her friends. "You all look so little."

"To you we _are_ little." Kero answered.

She turned to the fire-breathing dragon, "stop right now!" She grabbed its tail, but it struggled free.

"This is so cool- it's just like a video game, except it's real life! Go!" Meilin cheered. Sakua was having a bit of trouble, when all of a sudden, the dragon slowly started to disappear as if ink the color of the night sky was painting it out.

"_To be continued_…_''_ Nikki closed the book.

"Whooh-ho! The writer called it a night!" Kero flew up. "Sakura, seal it before it disappears!"

"Create Card return to your power confined- Create!" the 'book' came to her as the card was sealed. It seemed tiny in her gigantic hand.

"Ready to join us little people, again?" Kero asked.

"The view's not bad from up here," she responded.

"Uh, one false step from you and the gang down there is history."

"Oh," she bent down. "Anyone want a lift?"

The next morning, Nikki awoke and went over to her desk. Something was missing, and look as she did, she could not find it anywhere. "Where did my book go?"


	10. Chapter 10: No Way Out

**No Way Out**

Sakura was rushing home from school on her rollerblades. _Oh, no I'm going to be late_! Suddenly a black cat appeared, she was about to go down when- she felt a backwards pull on her arm. She looked up to see a woman with red hair and brownish-yellowish eyes.

"Cats," the woman said, "always in the way."

"Yeah," Sakura murmured.

"So, I'll see you tommorrow, then," she turned and walked away.

_"Huh? See you tommorrow? What's that supposed to mean?"_ Sakura wondered. She told Kero about it.

"She just appeared out of nowhere?" he asked. "What did she look like?"

"She had eyes like a cat," she described.

_"Could it be Yue?"_ Kero asked himself.

The next morning in school, one of the girls was telling Sakura and Madison where they could get good-luck amulets, when the teacher walked in.

"Class," he called them to order. "We have a new teacher- meet Ms. McKenzie." In walked a woman wearing a light black jacket over her pink dress. It was the woman from the day before! The kids talked about her at lunch.

"Li and I don't trust her," Meilin commented.

"Why don't you trust me?" she popped up behind them. "I'm sure you're all good at math." After school Sakura and Madison headed over to that store for the magic amulets. They saw Meilin up ahead, dragging Li with her.

"What's wrong?" Madison asked Sakura.

"Things just seem out of whack-"

"Well, it's a garden Sakura, it's supposed to feel different," Madison shrugged.

"Li, do you sense anything?" Sakura ran up.

"What?" Suddenly, they heard a strange sound somewhat like a bell. Before they knew what was happening, they were standing in a huge, green maze.

"Avalone, this is all your fault!" Meilin accused.

"It's the maze card. We have to find the exit," Li explained. He tried using the Lazen-board to find the way out, but it did not work.

"Logic says that if we put our hands on the wall and walk around, eventually we'll find the exit," Madison suggested. They tried it, until they realized they were right back where they started from. "Logic does not work, the Lazen-board is no use. What's left?" Sakura pulled out the fly card and got up on her wand.

"I'll find the exit," she flew up, but the higher she flew, the higher the walls grew.

At the Avalone home, Sakura's dad started to worry. "It's getting late- where is she?"

"I'll go and look for her," Tory went out on his bike.

In the maze, they were getting frustrated. "Stupid wall!" Meilin kicked the one next to her.

"That's it!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Back off, Avalone!" Meilin retorted to a non-existent insult.

"No! You're right- we can make a path through the wall," Sakura pulled out the sword card and cut the wall open. No sooner had it disappeared, than it restored itself.

The maze started shifting around its dimensions separating them. Li quickly pulled out his wind element to bring back Madison, who had been moved by the change. They looked around. The maze had grown far more complex with stairs going in every direction.

"Wait! Where is Meilin?" Oh, she's over there, sideways. Huh?

"Help me!" She screamed. "Help, I'm sideways!" Li tried to bring her to them with the wind, but this time, nothing happened.

"It worked before," Sakura was confused.

"It is the change in dimensions. Now, the maze is interfering with the elements," Li explained.

"We are coming!" they assured Meilin. They headed towards her, until they came to a dark tunnel, with a path going up on the side of it.

"If we go into that tunnel, we'll lose sight of Meilin," Madison noted.

"Wait! The exit's up there I'm sure of it!" Sakura pointed up the path.

"Yeah, it is," Li agreed.

"Meilin!" they called out to her. "We are going to come through the tunnel, start counting so we can follow your voice."

"Okay," she called out. "ONE…TWO…THREE…FOUR…FIVE…SIX… SEVE-"

"Oh, no! Meilin!" They raced the rest of the way out the tunnel.

"She's here?" Tory stopped his bike outside the garden entrance.

When they got to the other side, she was gone! Then they heard footsteps, and saw shadows coming around the corner.

"Stand back," Li got in front of the girls, ready to protect them. It was-

"Meilin?! But how?"

"Her!" Meilin smiled. Right behind her came-

"Ms. McKenzie!"

"So you see, life, like math, is full of problems that you have to find solutions to," their teacher told them. She pulled out a golden item with a purple cloth, and rang it. "Does that sound familiar?"

"We heard that before the maze appeared. Strange looking bell," Sakura commented.

"It is actually an ancient instrument. I was trying to warn you about the maze, but the dimensions were already forming," Ms. McKenzie informed them. Then, they heard a grumble.

"Sorry, I'm hungry," Sakura's stomach had growled.

"I'm hungry myself. How about we get out of here?" the woman suggested.

"But, that's just it Ms. McKenzie- we can't get out of here," Sakura told her.

"Have you tried this?" she banged the bell against the wall, and it crumbled.

"We tried that- but the wall just- grew back," the girl answered. McKenzie walked through.

"Come on!" Meilin and Madison followed her.

"The wall didn't grow back," Sakura tried to understand.

"So you see, Sakura? She's not what she appears to be," Li repeated his suspicions. They left the maze, with the teacher breaking every wall in the way.

"And there's the exit."

"Sakura- hurry- seal the card before another maze forms!" Sakura hestitated and turned to Ms. McKenzie.

"Um- would you-?" Sakura started.

"Avert my gaze," she turned around while Sakura sealed the card. Then it flew over into McKenzie's hands.

"About that card-" Sakura began.

"I guess this belongs to you," Ms. McKenzie handed her the maze card.

"Oh no!" Meilin ran over.

"What? Not another maze?" Madison asked. Sakura ran over to Meilin.

"The store's closed! That's why we came in the first place."

"No amulets!"

"Girls!" they turned to Ms. McKenzie, who held something out to each of them.

"Thank you!"

"It's an amulet- thank you! But, how did you know?" Sakura wondered.

"I had a feeling."

"There you are!" Tory ran up to them. "Dad's been worried."

"Well, I lost track of time," Sakura tried to explain.

"Are you her brother?" Ms. McKenzie asked, and introduced herself. "Nice meeting you," she turned to leave.

"Thanks again, Ms. McKenzie," Sakura called out after her. "For everything," she whispered.


	11. Chapter 11: The Switch

**The Switch**

Sakura, Kero and Li were in the park, running after a strange-looking blue card with yellow-red eyes. The Change Card.

"I got it!" Li shouted.

"Wrong again, kid, this one's ours!" Kero responded. Both Li and Kero grabbed onto the card at the same time.

"Sakura, seal it before it gets away!" Li called out.

"Hey, we don't need help from you. Sakura, seal it before it gets away!" Kero echoed.

"Change Card- return to your power confined- Change!" The card was sealed and went to Sakura.

Li's hands moved open and closed. "I don't believe it!" Li's hand hit his head.

"No way!" Kero's did likewise.

"Aw, relax kid."

"RELAX? How can I relax? I'm a stuffed animal!"

"Welcome to my world." Their voices were coming from each others' bodies.

"What's going on guys?" Sakura asked.

"Now, listen very carefully, Sakura…"

"Li, why are you talking like Kero?"

"I _am_ Kero. We had a little accident."

"Can you do other impressions? No- really- you're pretty good," Sakura complimented.

"He's telling the truth, Sakura; I'm Li, in Kero's body."

"Oh, you guys are a riot!" Sakura laughed and signed her name on change. "Now, let's go home," she bent down.

"Get away from me!"

"You mean- you guys really are switched?! This is just terrible, Kero."

"I'm over here," he reminded her.

"So, are you permanently switched? Is there anything I can do?" Sakura asked.

"Sometimes, you just have to let things run their course."

"You sound awfully calm about this, Li- I mean Kero," Sakura said.

"This is my chance to live large! Look, all we gotta do is perform a reverse transformation in twenty-four hours right here. Sure you can handle that, kid?" he turned to Li. "Being me's not easy."

"I can be you a lot easier than you can be me," he retorted.

"Just show up, 'cause if you don't we're stuck this way."

"There's just one problem…"

"Here we go people: excuses from the kid."

"It's Meilin."

"We can't tell Meilin, okay? We can't tell anybody. Low profile, okay?" Sakura made them promise.

"Hi, Meilin." She opened the door of her apartment.

"You're late," she frowned only for a moment, "but it's okay."

"Okay, see here's the thing-"

"Li, what's wrong with your voice? It sounds weird," she noticed.

"Well, its funny you should say that, because you're not the first person who has told me that today," he went in.

"We never should have let him go in there," Li complained to Sakura, outside where they were watching.

"We had no choice, Meilin was expecting you. Li, if you don't show up where you're supposed to be, people are going to start to wonder," she reminded him. "It's no big deal- he just has to make soup."

"I bet he can't even boil water!"

"Do you have everything you need?" Meilin asked.

"Huh?" Kero was confused.

"You promised you would make Wei's Chicken Noodle Soup for me, remember?" she turned and walked out of the kitchen.

"Well, its just soup," Kero looked at the table.

"Li, there is no way you're sleeping in my room," Sakura told him when they got there.

"You want to me sleep in the tree?" he asked.

"Its no big deal- you've got Kero's wings," she replied.

"Alright, alright! I'll sleep in the tree!" he turned toward the open window and started flying to the tree in the yard. He fell down midway.

"Oh! I'm coming!" Sakura ran downstairs to the door.

"I've got my key," Tory told her, as he walked in with Julian.

"This is your stuffed animal, right?" Julian held Li out to her. "He just fell out the window. You should be more careful, the neighbor's cat thought it was a bird." Sakura took him from Julian.

"That thing looks worse and worse every day. I say we give it to the cat," Tory advised.

"Does it talk?" Julian asked.

"What?"

"Does it talk? I thought I heard it say something." Sakura clamped her hand shut over the mouth to keep them from hearing anything else.

"No, it doesn't talk- never did," she raced back to her room and put Li down on her bed. "You blew it on the flying thing, so just stay put. I'll bring you some dinner."

Kero brought the soup out to Meilin and sat down. She tasted it and was disgusted, but forced a smile. Kero tasted it as well, and gulped.

"That soup has some kick even if I do say so myself," he smiled.

"Li, what _is_ the matter with your voice? It sounds like Kero's," she wrinkled her nose.

"Well, I guess when you hang out with a guy long enough, you start to sound like him," he replied.

"Why would you want to hang out with a stuffed animal?" she was confused.

"**Don't call him a stuffed animal!**"he rose to his feet in anger. "He's Kero Beros, Guardian Beast of the seal of the Clow Cards."

"But you always call him a stuffed animal," she pointed out.

"Yeah," he sat back down, "but not anymore. That Kero Beros is okay."

Li crossed his arms. "_Stay put_. Who does she think she's talking to?"

"Want another hamburger, Julian?" Sakura asked him.

"No." She got up and went to the sink. What she saw made her gasp. Li was trying to climb the pipe outside, while the cat watched him from below.

"If he can do it, I can do it," he muttered. He started slipping.

"Something out there, Sakura?" Tory asked.

She whirled away from the window quickly. "No, maybe there's a cat out there, that's all." As she spoke, Li fell to the ground.

"Are you awake?" she bent over the open top drawer of her draw the next morning, where a miniature bed had been fixed up.

"No, I'm in a bad dream," Li groaned, a bandage on his head where it was hurt.

"It'll be over this afternoon. Hey, it was your own fault, I told you to stay put," she pointed out.

"Don't remind me," he scowled.

"I have to get ready for school."

"I'm going too," he stated.

"You can't, something might happen," she warned him.

"I just know Kero's going to do something wrong. Besides, I won't move an inch, I promise," he looked at her and she sighed.

"Okay, not one inch." Sakura got to her locker.

"You know you really ought to get more organized, Sakura," Li criticized. Their teacher came over as the first bell rang, and Li ducked into her bag and out of sight.

"You're loaded down today, Sakura," Mr. Toroto commented.

"Yeah, I've got my gym shorts today," she fibbed. "What's in there?" she asked, indicating a white bag with a blue ribbon design and stripe in his his hands.

"This? I bought a toy for my niece's birthday," he showed her the stuffed animal and putting it back, added, "but if we don't hurry we'll both be late for class." He left. Sakura walked into the classroom with Li where they saw their classmates crowding around someone. She pushed her way to the center and found Kero talking about his favorite pastime.

"Wow, Li, I didn't know you played video games!" someone exclaimed.

"What's your favorite move?" another called out.

"Without a doubt it would have to be the Zilon Warrior Three," Kero answered.

"What's that?"

"Basic move with some thumb flips…" Kero tried demonstrating and fell down.

"How humiliating," Li thought.

"You call that a low profile, Kero?" Sakura asked him outside the school.

"You humiliated me!" Li was very embarrassed.

"You should be thanking me, I gave you a personality," Kero responded.

"Hello Kero," Madison walked up. "I didn't know you were here today, or is it Li?"

"What are you talking about, I'm Li," Kero asked nervously.

"Sorry, but I'd bet my digital camera that Li Shoran never played a video game in his life," she said confidently.

"He hasn't," Sakura blurted out.

"Wait to go, Sakura," Kero shot back.

"Oh, come on, it was obvious. Nobody had to tell me anything," Madison assured them. At lunch time, Li watched from the classroom window as Kero tried to play soccer in the yard. The ball hit him in the head.

"_Forget the two-legged thing_," Kero got down on all fours, ran and jumped into the air trying to hit the ball. Li winced as he witnessed the crash. Then he heard someone coming into the room and went still.

"Kids," the man muttered. "The only thing they don't forget is their lunch," a teacher lifted Li up. "Let me introduce you to your new friends at the lost-and-never found." Mr. Toroto stopped the cart he was pushing and went in to answer a phone call, leaving behind his bag. When Li saw that the coast was clear, he got out of the bag he had been placed in, but fell into the one next to it. Mr. Toroto came back and picked it up.

Back outside, Madison, Sakura, and Kero were talking, when Meilin walked up to them. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Nothing," Kero told her. She grabbed him.

"Its me- Meilin- so spill it!" They went into the building looking for Li. "Wait till my Li hears about this!"

"He knows," Kero groaned.

"As a matter of fact, here he is," Madison picked up the toy Mr. Toroto had bought.

"You said you wouldn't move," Sakura complained.

"Couldn't wait, huh kid?" Kero joked.

"Sakura, this is way too public," Madison whispered. They resumed questioning outside, but could not get a word out of it.

"Let me handle it," Kero grabbed the toy, "stupid toy!" he shook it.

"Maybe the change card did this?"

"But the change card doesn't have this much power," Kero told them.

"Wait a minute, where did his wings go?" Madison asked. "This toy, really _is_ a toy." They went back to where they had found it.

"Oh no! Mr. Toroto had a bag like this!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Sounds urgent," Ms. McKenzie walked up.

"Do you know where Mr. Toroto is?" Sakura asked, "it's important."

"At the toystore downtown I believe," she replied slowly.

"Thanks," they bowed and ran off.

"You know, running on all fours would be faster," Kero advised. Evidently he was not as comfortable in Li's body as he had claimed. He was not accustomed to walking like humans. The others ignored his comment as they ran into Mr. Toroto. Meilin grabbed his bag and pulled out a pink toy bunny.

"Where's the toy that looks like this?" Sakura held up the one he had bought before.

"My niece already had one just like it, so I exchanged it," he answered surprised. They ran ahead to the toy store and looked around inside.

"Li? Li? Answer me!" Meilin searched frantically.

"I'm sorry little girl," the bewildered storeowner told her, "none of our toys talk."

"Come out front," Madison urged them. Right at the entrance to the store was one of those machines where you put in a quarter and used the claw to pick your prize. There in the center was Li. He scrambled around.

"Here comes the master," Kero grinned, eager to show off.

"This isn't a video game, Kero," Sakura reminded him.

"All it takes is a little hand-eye coordination," he answered as he dropped in the coin and aimed for Li. Li tried to go to the claw, but he went limp when the storeowner came out to watch.

"Good pick," he smiled. "Careful now," he advised, when the claw grabbed Li by the head. It was all he could do to keep from screaming out in pain. "Better luck next time," the owner told Kero, when the claw dropped Li.

"One more time," Kero put another quarter in the machine.

Back at the park, Kero and Li started arguing, then decided to fight it out.

"Guys, it's time," Sakura broke in.

"Huh?"

"Our twenty-four hours are up," she reminded them. Kero faced Li with open arms, but Li hesitated.

"Come on Li, this is how it's gotta be," she urged him. He complied. "Change Card!" A blue mist swirled around the two.

The next day, Li, back to his old self, went back to school with a tired look on his face.

"Hi, Li!" Sakura greeted him. "I brought your other half," she grinned as she opened her bookbag and revealed Kero.

"I'm still getting used to the transition," he looked up at Li, who was startled. "I just miss you, you know. Hey, mind if I ride in your backpack?"

**Author's Note: I do believe this was one of my favorite episodes.**


	12. Chapter 12: Ice Breaker & Early Frost

**Ice Breaker**

The ground in Reedington was covered in ice. As usual, Sakura rushed outside in her roller blades, despite Madison's warning.

"I roller blade, I can handle the ice," Sakura was confident, but the ice was too slippery. "Little help?" Sakura fell down, but luckily the only thing hurt was the ice. Madison helped Sakura to get up and stay up.

Their class was going on a trip to the ice-skating rink. Everyone climbed into the school bus. "It's too cold here," Meilin complained. "We never went ice-skating back home." They arrived at the rink. For many of them, it was their first time on ice, and the practice did not come naturally. Sakura looked over at Ms. McKenzie. She was gliding around the rink. In her pink dress, she could have been mistaken for a pro.

Sakura, on the other hand, kept falling down. Madison helped her up. "Come on Sakura, if she can teach Meilin, she can definitely teach you," she advised gesturing towards Ms. McKenzie, who was now showing Meilin how to skate. Before long, Sakura was receiving her first lesson.

"That's it!" Ms. McKenzie encouraged her. "One- two. One- two." Meanwhile, Meilin had had enough. She was sitting bundled up by the heater, complaining of the cold. Soon, she was not the only one. The indoor thermometer began to drop, and it seemed the heater was broken. Most people went to crowd around it anyway.

Ms. McKenzie was bent over a platter full of mugs of hot chocolate ready to distribute. The ice was practically deserted. Sakura looked at Madison.

"What's wrong?" Before her very eyes, Madison froze, covered in ice! The same thing happened to everyone there- or almost everyone. Li skated up to Sakura.

"The Freeze Card," he murmured.

"Well, it must not have the power to freeze us, since we have magic," Sakura reasoned. Li was not so sure. They looked down at the ice. Below the surface was what looked like a whale. It started swimming around, bringing up icicles in its path.

Sakura and Li were skating away from it. "Good thing we learned how to skate. One-two, one-two."

"Jump Card!" Sakura began jumping out of the way. She fell down. Li rushed over to her. She just laid still, her wand at her side, starting to freeze over.

"NO!" He started to break the ice, warm her up, do anything he could to save her. No one noticed Ms. McKenzie, peeking out from the cafeteria. Li helped Sakura up and they formed a plan. Li skated around, and got the card's attention. Skating ahead, Li lured the card right towards where Sakura stood waiting.

"Freeze Card, return to your power confined- Freeze!" Once the card was sealed it floated over to Li. Suddenly, everyone melted, not knowing anything had happened.

"It's too hot!" Meilin stood up.

"Come on," Ms. McKenzie handed Sakura the plate of mugs to hand out to everyone. The rest of the trip was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Although…

"Li," Meilin said to him, grinning, "I've signed us up for ice-skating lessons!"

**Early Frost **

Time passed. Kero tried to wake up Sakura. Still half asleep, she pushed him aside as if he were an alarm clock. "The new semester's starting today, remember?" he got her up. "You haven't captured any cards recently."

"There haven't been any around for me to capture," she responded.

"You know," he continued as she got ready for school, "sometimes I think you're under the spell of the Sleep Card…" They thought back to the time when the sleep card had attacked in the library.

_"Everyone's asleep," Sakura remarked, when the card turned on her_. _"Oh no you don't_! _It's not my bedtime, yet_._" She sealed the card_.

"Of course," Kero went on, "it would've been hard to sleep through the Wood Card's entrance, even for you…" They remembered when the card had attacked at home, twirling around them, until they were stuck. _Ding-dong_. _Madison opened the door and went in_.

"_Catching up on your gardening, Kero?" she asked as she untangled the two of them_.

"_I wish," he replied_. _Sakura sealed the card_.

"And yet," Kero said, "you're going to be late for school."

"School!" Sakura had been so lost in the memories, she almost forgot. She rushed outside on her rollerblades, Tory following her on his bike. They caught up with Julian.

"Julian, where's your bike?" Sakura asked.

"It's being repaired, so I'm on foot today," he answered.

"That's too bad," Tory said, "I've got to get to school early."

"Don't worry; I'll just walk with Sakura. That is, if you don't mind skating slowly?"

"Not at all," she smiled.

"See you," Tory sped off.

"Late again, Sakura?" Julian asked.

"I lost track of time," she shrugged.

"I thought so. I got you something I think you could use," he handed her a long, thin, white box.

"A present for me?" she gasped, beaming. "I know I'm going to love it already." At school, Sakura took her seat in the classroom. Madison eyed the present from Julian.

"Sakura," she asked, "are you going to make me guess whom that's from?" Before she could answer, the door opened.

"Hey, it's that substitute teacher we had last year," a student called out. Ms. McKenzie was back again.

"Hello, everyone. I'm glad to see so many familiar faces again. I think for our first day together," she winked, "we should go outside!"

"Yeah!" a boy exclaimed, "We can play football."

"Football's an interesting idea. Are there any other suggestions?" she asked.

A number were shouted, one being "a nature walk." "A nature walk sounds like a good idea. Come on," Ms. McKenzie said.

"Alright!" Sakura stood up.

"Sakura," Ms. McKenzie warned, "Some interesting weather we're having. Better keep your eyes open." Sakura looked out the window and saw a snowflake falling down.

_"Snow?"_ Sakura wondered. "_It's way too early for snow_." When she got home, she pulled out the box she had gotten that morning. "I almost forgot about the present from Julian! I wonder what it could be! He said he thought I could use it," she lifted the lid and found a wristwatch. It had a blue band, a white face, and decorated hands. She quickly put it on. "I'll never take it off," she vowed. The door opened.

"Hey, squirt!" Tory's voice called. "Come bring me a towel!"

"Why?" What would he need a towel for?

"Just do it!"

"Here you go, your majesty," she held out a towel to him. Then she gasped. "You're all wet!"

"Snow will do that to you," he answered. "I practically had to walk my bike home."

"You mean it's sticking to the ground?"

"Are you kidding? It's three feet deep out there!" He might have been off, but not by much. Sakura looked out the window; the snow was piled high, with kids playing in it, when they were not being swallowed by it.

"Tory," Sakura turned to her brother, "it's way too early for snow. What's going on?"

"I don't know," he shrugged. That evening, the sky promised a storm.

Madison called Sakura on the cell phone. "Looks like you two have a card to capture."

"Yeah, I guess I do," Sakura hung up. She, Madison, and Kero flew out to the park. Sakura had a red snowsuit, with bunny ears, on top of her clothes. Madison jumped down on the penguin slide. Sakura tried to stand up on the snow, but it was too deep and Kero had to lift her up. "Oh, hi Li!" Sakura called, as she spotted him and Meilin standing on top of the snow. There was a pink glow around them.

"How come you're not falling down?" she asked.

"It's because of Li's superior magic," Meilin smiled proudly.

"Have you tried using the Float Card?" Li suggested.

"We don't need your advice on Clow Cards!" Kero was so pissed; he nearly dropped Sakura, who pulled out the Float Card, embarrassed.

"Did you sense the card?" Sakura inquired a minute later.

"No, it was weird. Did you?"

"No," Sakura said. "Oh! But maybe I should have, after talking with Ms. McKenzie."

Kero was aghast. "Are you saying your teacher sensed this Clow Card?"

"It seemed like she did."

"Like I said, she's hiding something," Li was suspicious.

"She was trying to help, Li. She was warning me," Sakura said. Suddenly the snow began to attack them, hard. They tried to get away. "It's following us."

"Because we're the ones with magical powers," Kero explained.

"Then let's get away from the girls!" Li urged.

"Fly! Come on, Li!" Sakura motioned for him to get on the wand. Again, he hesitated.

"Are we going to have to go through this every time, kid?" Kero asked. Li got on. They flew, with the snow after them. At last they landed nearby. Li pulled out his sword.

"Element- Fire!" It did not defeat the Snow Card. "Maybe you should try your Firey Card," Li suggested to Sakura.

"No," Kero broke in. "It's too dangerous, and it might not work anyway."

"Oh, no!" Sakura cried.

"What is it, now?" Li asked, concerned.

"I've lost my brand-new wrist watch," she exclaimed.

"This is no time to be worrying about watches!" he shot back, annoyed.

"That Snow Card took my brand new watch- I promised I'd never take it off," she went on, tears in her eyes. "I'm using the Firey Card! Fire Card- I order you to melt all the snow- Release and Dispel- Fire!" Fire immediately obeyed the command.

"Whoa! Impressive," Li admitted.

"Now you know what happens when Sakura gets mad," Kero put in. "Sakura- the Snow Card's true form-" Which, was a white girl, with blue eyes, and a blue belt around her white dress.

"And it's about to be captured," Sakura nodded. "Snow Card- Return to your power confined- Snow!" She got the card, but was still disappointed. "That watch was a gift, a special gift," she looked down.

"Hey," Li said softly to her. "I'm sorry," and he genuinely was. Then they heard someone coming. Li stood up, ready to defend themselves. Ms. McKenzie walked over, wearing a pink dress with a purple sash, her hair was done up. "What're you doing here?"

"Relax, Li. Something was lost and now it's being returned. I think this belongs to you," she held it out to Sakura.

"My watch! Thank you! But, how did you know?"

"I had a feeling," Ms. McKenzie smiled, and walked away.


	13. Chapter 13: Hibernation Trip

**Hibernation Trip**

"It's not fair!" Kero complained. "Sakura gets to go to a cave with her class, and I'm stuck here! Why didn't she take me with her?"

"Did you hear something?" Tory asked Julian.

"No, I don't think so. We must be studying too hard," he reasoned. They were in Tory's room with their schoolbooks open.

Meanwhile, Sakura's class was at the beach. A bunch of the kids were playing volleyball with a beach ball, when someone served it right into the water. Sakura swam after it, retrieving it quickly. She shivered, and not because of the water temperature. Looking up at the other side of the water, she saw the cave they had come to see, and thought she saw someone- or something- there. Spooked, she tossed the ball to shore, and hesitated long enough for Li to swim past her and back. He seemed to have to prove that he could swim faster and better than she could. Later that day, Sakura was peeling potatoes.

"Looks like you have some competition," Madison pointed out. Again, Li was going faster than Sakura, his pile of potatoes much larger.

"Hey, it's only potatoes," Sakura grinned.

After dinner, everyone gathered around the campfire. "Tomorrow," their teacher informed them, "we will go into that cave, one group at a time to see the shrine made ages ago. Every group will take along one candle, and any small items you would like to leave at the shrine." Everyone went into the cabins, turned out the lights, and crawled into the bunk beds. However, they did not go right to sleep.

Nikki leaned over the side of her bed. "Zack told me a story about the cave we're going into tomorrow. He said years ago, another class was going to visit the cave- just like us. They were going in by groups and carrying candles and items to leave at the shrine- just like us. When they went in, they heard a strange sound-"

"Ah!" the girls jumped as their door opened, and in walked Ms. McKenzie.

"Hey, it's lights-out. Everyone go to sleep," she called and left.

"Continue the story," someone urged.

"Well, after that everyone disappeared, never to be seen again," Nikki finished. Sakura was scared. That might mean ghosts, her worst fear. She ran out of the cabin, and down by the lake she found Li. She caught her breath.

"May I sit down?" He looked up at her, keeping the surprise off his face.

"What are you doing out? You're supposed to be asleep," he knew she did not go breaking rules on a whim. She shook her head and sat down next to him.

"You're supposed to be in bed, too," she defended herself. "Nikki was telling a ghost story, and I guess it freaked me out. So, here I am. Maybe some fresh air will clear my head." She looked out at the cave. "You know, when I was swimming earlier, I got the feeling there was something about that cave. Do you think there's a ghost there?" she asked, afraid of the answer.

"No," he answered. "It figures that you would be afraid of ghosts- pathetic," he muttered. Then he considered, "maybe you do sense _something_ in that cave. We'll find out tomorrow." They sat in silence for a while, never having had a conversation before.

"Does your family know about the Clow Cards?" Sakura asked. She wished she could share her experiences with her father, and Tory, and – oh – did she miss talking to her mom. The only one she could speak to at home about the cards was Kero, sort of an honorary member of the family, even if no one else knew him.

"Clow Reed is our ancestor!" Li reminded her. "The cards are important to us. My mom sent me here, when we realized the cards had been released. I'm being counted on to bring back the cards." A task he had been prepared for and now carried the burden of.

"Who do you live with?" Sakura asked. She had never been to his home.

"One of my mom's cousins– Wei– but only until all the cards are captured."

"You know, I'm capturing the cards, too," as much as he would like to forget.

"I don't need your help," he dismissed her right to be a card captor.

"I don't need your help, either!" Sakura stood up and stormed back to bed. Madison was still awake.

"Worried?"

"Yeah, Nikki's story was strange."

"Don't you mean Zack's story?" The next day, everyone started going into the cave, two by two, and each pair with a candle. Sakura went in with Madison. They had not gone far when Madison stopped.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked. Suddenly, Madison disappeared! Frightened, Sakura ran ahead to where she heard voices. She found Rita. When she told her what had happened, Rita said the same thing happened to Nikki. Then Rita disappeared. Sakura turned around to see Li.

"Zack's gone, too," he said. "Look- the shrine!" He pointed to a closed cupboard-like piece on an altar. "Something's over there. We have to get to it." They walked on, but had to stop. Where there had once been a bridge was a big, gaping abyss. Sakura pulled out the Float Card, and the pink glow helped them cross.

"Do you think it's a ghost?" Sakura gulped.

"No, it's a Clow Card. You have to seal it! What?" he asked when he saw the look on her face. Li was turning transparent, just as the others had right before they vanished.

"I'm scared," Sakura moaned.

"I know. But you have to overcome your fear. If you don't seal the card soon, we will all disappear- for good," he spoke to her. Resolved, Sakura held up her wand to the shrine. Once sealed, the card went to Sakura, and Li returned to normal. He looked over her shoulder at the card.

"The Erase Card! No wonder everyone was being erased," he realized.

"Here," Sakura held the card out to Li. "Take it, you deserve it. Without you, I never would have had the courage to seal it." Li could not believe what he had heard.

"I don't need your help capturing cards. I can get them on my own!" he turned around, and then walked back. "I need to get across," he reminded her to get the Float Card out for the abyss. His attitude had certainly changed from when he had first demanded she give him the cards. They relaxed back on the beach.

"It's a good thing no one remembers what happened," Sakura said to Li. "I wouldn't have known what to tell them."

"Hey, guys!" Rita called. "We're about to start a volleyball game, you in?"

"You know," Zack butted in, "The Egyptians invented volleyball as a way of determining who would be their next leader." Suddenly, a fierce game started between Sakura and Li. We shall never know who won.


	14. Chapter 14: Under the Weather

**Under the Weather**

In the darkness, Sakura felt a hand touching her forehead. It was so familiar. "Sakura, get up!" Kero called. She woke up, and groaned. She did not feel like getting up, and this time it was more than a matter of being tired. No, tired did not seem like the right word, weak was. She felt so _weak_. Kero flew over and felt her forehead. "Whoa- you're burning up. You better stay at home today," he advised. Sakura slowly dragged herself to her feet.

"I can't stay home today," she sighed. "My group is supposed to show our project in school." She found her way downstairs, cautiously, for breakfast. When her father saw the condition she was in, he too, insisted that she go back to bed. She refused, but this morning she decided to walk to school, rather than try her luck on her rollerblades. In class, her friends agreed that she should go home. She ignored them, until Ms. McKenzie intervened.

"I'm calling your brother," she told her. "When he arrives, go home and get well." There was no more arguing to be done. Sakura got her things from her locker, while Madison stood by.

"Alright, I'm leaving," Sakura said as she replaced the lock on the door.

"Sakura, you better wait for Tory," Madison reminded her.

"I can go home by myself," Sakura turned around and collapsed- right into Tory's arms. She moaned again, as he lifted her up unto his shoulders and under the pink umbrella for the way home. It had started to drizzle, softly, but steadily. Tory let Sakura down on her bed and covered her up.

"You're running a fever," he told her, concerned. "Do you think you can eat?" She nodded. "I'll bring you back some food and some medicine." He turned and let his gaze linger on Kero, who was sitting as still as possible on top of a bureau. As soon as Tory was gone, Kero breathed a sigh of relief.

"I think he's catching on to me," he had been sweating. Now he flew over to the window. Looking up into the evening sky, he saw a storm brewing. "There's a Clow Card out there," he informed Sakura. At once, she pulled herself up out of bed. "Where are you going?" Kero wanted to know.

"I'm going after that card," Sakura returned.

"In your pajamas? It's too cold out there," he was worried about her. She took out a yellow sweater and started putting it on. "Look, you can't go now. Tory said he'd be back any minute with food. What're you going to do when he returns and finds you're not here? That's got to look suspicious, _especially since you're sick_." Sakura brought out the key.

"Oh key of Clow," she chanted, "power of magic, power of light, surrender the wand the force ignite! Release!" She took hold of the wand.

"What are you doing?" Kero asked. Ignoring him, she pulled out a card.

"Mirror- Project my image- Mirror!" Once more, the Mirror Card took on her form. That being settled, Sakura and Kero flew out the window. They were trying to land, when Sakura lost her balance and fell off her wand.

"Element Wind!" Li sent wind to catch her safely in midair.

"Hi Li!" she croaked, gratefully.

"What are you thinking?" he asked her. "You shouldn't be out here with your cold," he reminded her.

"I didn't have a choice. If I don't seal the card soon, the storm is going to hit the whole town," she pointed out. He could not argue with that. He may have been able to help capture the cards, but he was powerless to seal any.

Back at the Avalone home, Tory had put a tray of food, and medicine in front of Sakura- or rather, her likeness. "You're leaving it over?" he asked her.

"I guess I wasn't that hungry, after all," Mirror smiled.

"You shouldn't be taking medicine when you're not sick," Tory answered. "You're not my sister Sakura, are you?" he accused. She shook her head. "We've met before, haven't we?" She nodded, and they remembered the time Mirror had tricked Tory into falling. That was right before Sakura captured the card.

"I think I know what Sakura is up to," Tory announced. "Don't tell her, okay?" he asked Mirror. "She hasn't figured out yet that I have the ability to see into the Spirit World." Mirror promised not to tell.

Meanwhile, Li was using his sword to tear through the clouds. "Element Fire!" he shot at it. Now, the card showed its true form- a little kid above a cloud.

"Is that Rain?" Sakura asked Kero, referring to an almost identical card.

"It looks the same, but it is definitely the Cloud Card," he answered. Sakura lifted her wand.

"Cloud Card- Return to your power confine-" the weight of the wand was too heavy for her, and she started to lose her balance. Meilin, who had accompanied Li, caught her.

"I got ya," Meilin held on to her, and put her arms around hers to steady the wand.

"Cloud Card- Return to your power confined- Cloud Card!" as weak as the words sounded, they worked, and the card floated to Li. Taking hold of it, he handed it out to Sakura, who was shocked.

"You deserve it," he explained. "You came out here even though you were sick."

"Thank you," Sakura accepted it. She and Kero flew into her room, which Tory had left. Mirror Card, still in Sakura's form, helped Sakura into bed and covered her up.

"It was nice seeing Tory, again," the card grinned before going back into the Book of Clow in Sakura's drawer. Soon Tory came back in to take her temperature; she was still running a fever.

"Oh, Sakura," he sighed. "This is what happens when you push yourself too hard." He turned to leave, when he caught a glimpse of something. "Mother," he murmured. Her ghostly spirit was there, standing by Sakura's bed. Her black hair tumbled down her green dress, her blue eyes accenting her pale face.

Sakura felt a hand on her forehead. _It's the hand from this morning_. _Hi mom_!

"Tory," Mrs. Avalone spoke. "I've been worried about Sakura all day. Watch out for her, honey."

Kero flew down to Li and Meilin who were waiting downstairs. "Sakura's in bed," he told them.

"Why aren't you up there?" Li asked.

"She's with Tory. I think he's catching on to me," Kero worried. "So, I think it's a good idea for me to leave the house for a while. Can I stay with you?" he asked Meilin.

"What?! No way!" Meilin protested.

"Is that any way for you to treat your house guest?" he asked. The next morning, Sakura was feeling much better, and went downstairs for breakfast. She stopped at a photograph of her mother.

"Thanks, mom!" she said.

"What are you thanking mother for?" Tory asked.

"I just have a feeling she was watching me yesterday," she replied.

"I know," he smiled.

THE END

**Author's Note: Another of my favorite episodes. **

**I know; this wasn't the end of the series, but it was the last chapter I typed, so that's the end of that. If you got this far, hope you enjoyed.**


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